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Query: UMLS:C0015672 (fatigue)
 51,768 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The incidence of pancreatic cancer is about 10,000 cases a year in Germany. The role of surgery as a curative modality is limited. The 5-year survival for all stages remains less than 5%. Pain, cachexia, jaundice, nausea, fatigue and depression are frequent symptoms which reduce the quality of life for affected patients. Therefore, amelioration of symptoms is a major goal of palliative care. Chemotherapy may yield a moderate survival benefit. Gemcitabine is the drug of choice in metastatic pancreatic cancer. In locally advanced disease, radiochemotherapy can be considered. Different treatment strategies against molecular targets are currently tested in clinical trials.
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PMID:[Best supportive care of pancreatic carcinoma]. 1516 Feb 43

Loss of appetite and cachexia are frequent symptoms in palliative care patients. However, therapeutic regimens often prove ineffective, and the quality of life of many patients is significantly impaired by these symptoms. Causes and pathophysiology of anorexia and cachexia are complex and must be identified and treated. Symptomatic pharmacological therapy aims at metabolic, neuroendocrinological and catabolic changes. Prokinetic drugs, corticosteroids and gestagenes are used for symptomatic therapy. Recently, the use of cannabinoids for treatment of loss of appetite and cachexia has become the focus of interest. In cancer patients, cannabinoids proved more effective than placebo but less than gestagenes. Compared to placebo, higher efficacy of cannabinoids could be demonstrated in patients with AIDS as well as in patients with Morbus Alzheimer. However, side effects, such as dizziness, tiredness and daze led to discontinuation of the cannabinoid therapy in some patients.
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PMID:[Cannabinoids in the treatment of the cachexia-anorexia syndrome in palliative care patients]. 1522 23

Chronic heart failure (CHF) remains an important and increasing public health care problem. It is a complex syndrome affecting many body systems. Body wasting (i.e., cardiac cachexia) has long been recognised as a serious complication of CHF. Cardiac cachexia is associated with poor prognosis, independently of functional disease severity, age, and measures of exercise capacity and cardiac function. Patients with cardiac cachexia suffer from a general loss of fat tissue, lean tissue, and bone tissue. Cachectic CHF patients are weaker and fatigue earlier, which is due to both reduced skeletal muscle mass and impaired muscle quality. The pathophysiologic alterations leading to cardiac cachexia remain unclear, but there is increasing evidence that metabolic, neurohormonal and immune abnormalities may play an important role. Cachectic CHF patients show raised plasma levels of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol, and they show high plasma renin activity and increased plasma aldosterone level. Several studies have also shown that cardiac cachexia is linked to raised plasma levels of tumour necrosis factor alpha and other inflammatory cytokines. The degree of body wasting is strongly correlated with neurohormonal and immune abnormalities. The available evidence suggests that cardiac cachexia is a multifactorial neuroendocrine and metabolic disorder with a poor prognosis. A complex imbalance of different body systems may cause the development of body wasting.
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PMID:Cardiac cachexia. 1551 2

Cancer cachexia is a syndrome of weight loss, muscle wasting, fatigue, and anorexia that occurs in patients with advanced or recurrent solid tumor disease. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) have been implicated in the biology of cachexia and serve as possible targets for treatment of this condition. Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a polyunsaturated fatty acid that alters the synthesis of PGE2 and reduces the negative effects of TNF on body weight of healthy mice. We hypothesized that a diet supplemented with .5% CLA might reduce muscle wasting in mice bearing the colon-26 adenocarcinoma, an animal model of cancer cachexia. CLA preserved gastrocnemius muscle mass and reduced TNF receptors in muscle of tumor-bearing mice. These data suggest that CLA may preserve muscle mass by reducing the catabolic effects of TNF on skeletal muscle.
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PMID:Conjugated linoleic acid preserves gastrocnemius muscle mass in mice bearing the colon-26 adenocarcinoma. 1562 11

Despite major advances in cancer biology and therapeutics, cancer and its treatment continue to cause devastating suffering. Patients with advanced cancer most often experience multiple physical and psychological symptom concurrently. We review here some of the common non-pain cancer symptoms, focusing on the assessment and treatment of fatigue, anorexia and cachexia, dyspnea, and symptoms common near the end of life.
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PMID:Control of common, non-pain cancer symptoms. 1581 66

The key points of this article are anorexia and cachexia are: A major cause of cancer deaths. Several drugs are available to treat anorexia and cachexia. Dyspnea in cancer usually is caused by several factors. Treatment consists of reversing underlying causes, empiric bronchodilators, cortico-steroids--and in the terminally ill patients-opioids, benzodiazepines,and chlorpromazine. Delirium is associated with advanced cancer. Empiric treatment with neuroleptics while evaluating for reversible causes is a reasonable approach to management. Nausea and vomiting are caused by extra-abdominal factors (drugs,electrolyte abnormalities, central nervous system metastases) or intra-abdominal factors (gastroparesis, ileus, gastric outlet obstruction, bowel obstruction). The pattern of nausea and vomiting differs depending upon whether the cause is extra- or intra-abdominal. Reversible causes should be sought and empiric metoclopramide or haloperidol should be initiated. Fatigue may be caused by anemia, depression, endocrine abnormalities,or electrolyte disturbances that should be treated before using empiric methylphenidate. Constipation should be treated with laxatives and stool softeners. Both should start with the first opioid dose.
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PMID:Common symptoms in advanced cancer. 1583 69

Cardiac cachexia is a serious complication of chronic heart failure which is characterized by complex changes that overall lead to a catabolic/anabolic imbalance resulting in body wasting and a poor prognosis. The wasting process affects all body components, but particularly the skeletal musculature, causing extreme fatigue and weakness, especially in cachectic heart failure patients. Available evidence suggests that several pathophysiologic pathways play a role in the muscle wasting process. Metabolic, neurohormonal, and immune abnormalities lead to an altered regulation of proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and metabolism in skeletal muscle, finally resulting in deterioration of the underlying cause with symptomatic exercise intolerance. Possible treatment strategies against muscle wasting and cachexia in chronic heart failure are also described here. As there is no validated therapy for cardiac cachexia yet, further research is necessary to find more therapeutic options for the wasting process.
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PMID:Muscle wasting in cardiac cachexia. 1592 19

Cachexia is among the most debilitating and life-threatening aspects of cancer, and is more common in children and elderly patients. Associated with anorexia, fat and muscle tissue wasting, psychological distress, and a lower quality of life, cachexia arises from a complex interaction between the cancer and the host. This process results from a failure of the adaptive feeding response seen in simple starvation and includes cytokine production, release of lipid-mobilizing and proteolysis-inducing factors, and alterations in intermediary metabolism. Cytokines play a pivotal role in long-term inhibition of feeding by mimicking the hypothalamic effect of excessive negative feedback signaling from leptin, a hormone secreted by adipose tissue, which is an integral component of the homeostatic loop of body weight regulation. This could be done by persistent inhibition of feeding-stimulatory circuitry including neuropeptide Y. Cachexia should be suspected in patients with cancer if an involuntary weight loss of greater than five percent of premorbid weight occurs within a 3-6-month period. The two major options for pharmacological therapy have been either progestational agents or corticosteroids. However, knowledge of the mechanisms of cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome has led to, and continues to lead to, effective therapeutic interventions for several aspects of the syndrome. These include antiserotonergic drugs, gastroprokinetic agents, branched-chain amino acids, eicosapentanoic acid, cannabinoids, melatonin, and thalidomide-all of which act on the feeding-regulatory circuitry to increase appetite and inhibit tumor-derived catabolic factors to antagonize tissue wasting and/or host cytokine release. The outcomes of drug studies in cancer cachexia should focus on the symptomatic and quality-of-life advantages rather than simply on nutritional end points, since the survival of cachexia cancer patients may be limited to weeks or months due to the incurable nature of the underlying malignancy. Communication among physicians and other health care professionals provides the patient with a multidisciplinary approach to care. The patient record will be an excellent resource to document a plan of care and patient responses to treatment. Psychological distress and psychiatric disorders are common among cancer patients. These problems are also as common among the family members of people with cancer. The use of psychological and behavioral interventions in cancer is increasing, and recent studies have suggested that some of these techniques may affect quality of life and, perhaps, survival rates. Evaluations of relaxation, hypnosis, and short-term group psychotherapy have suggested some benefit with regard to anorexia and fatigue, although the population most likely to benefit from these interventions has not yet been determined. Because weight loss shortens the survival time of cancer patients and decreases performance status, effective therapy would extend patient survival and improve quality of life.
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PMID:[Recent development in research and management of cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome]. 1598 10

The majority of patients with advanced cancer experience weight loss, reduced appetite, fatigue, and weakness. Chronic nausea and early satiety may also occur. This constellation of symptoms is known as the cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome. Together with cancer pain, cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome has been identified as 1 of the 2 most frequent and devastating problems affecting individuals with advanced malignancies. Research examining the issue of cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome has been conducted; however, such work is largely biomedical in orientation. In contrast, the psychologic dimensions of the cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome experience from the perspective of terminally ill patients and their family members is less well explored or described. The ability to provide psychosocial support to patients and families requires that caregivers appreciate the psychologic effect of cancer anorexia and cachexia on these individuals. This article examines that effect in light of existing knowledge and discusses the clinical implications arising from this work.
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PMID:Cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome: psychological effect on the patient and family. 1603 Apr 67

In patients with gastrointestinal malignancies, i.e. cancers of the stomach, colon, liver, biliary tract or pancreas, progressive undernutrition can be regularly observed during the course of illness. Undernutrition significantly affects the patients' quality of life, morbidity and survival. Pathogenetically, two different causes are relevant in the development of undernutrition in patients with gastrointestinal cancer. One cause is reduced nutritional intake. This condition is referred to as anorexia and can be worsened by the side effects of cancer therapy. The other cause is the release of endogenous transmitters and/or other products of the tumour leading to the cachexia syndrome, which is characterized by loss of body weight, negative nitrogen balance and fatigue. Cancer anorexia and cancer cachexia may have synergistic negative effects in affecting the patients' status. In this review, current nutritional support strategies with respect to different clinically relevant situations are described. An algorithm of the treatment strategies, including dietetic counselling, oral supplements, enteral and parenteral nutritional support is given. One focus is the approach of nutrition-focused patient care, which shows promising results. In addition, the possibilities of pharmacological intervention are discussed.
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PMID:Review article: anorexia and cachexia in gastrointestinal cancer. 1642 4


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